Tim wasn’t able to stay long after Grandma gave him a metal bracelet, in an acceptably masculine style. It looked like the metal had been powder coated a bright red that matched his Trans Am. She added the “Pontiac T/A”, and it looked very sharp on Tim’s wrist. She spent a lot of time learning about his parents, the kinds of things they enjoyed, a favorite color, what they drove, etc.

“What a good boy.” Chapter 1?

Chapter 1?

“When I was born…they looked at me and said.”
“What a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy.”

………………..

And there’s more to the song and it really and it’s a really great tune actually and I’m a fan of The Bare-naked Ladies ever since I heard them when I was ten at a neighborhood dance at the boys and girl club.

Six Forty-Five, Part 4: Epilogue

Things didnt get better right away. I still got bullied at school, and at home was stuck in the middle of several fights between my mom and my step-father. I also had to cope with flashbacks so bad that sometimes, all I wanted to do was cry or throw up, or maybe both.

But by summer, once the doctors had finished poking around in my head, they made the pronouncement - I was a girl.

Just one with a little bit of misplaced skin between my legs.

As soon as we got home, Grandma began interrogating Tim about my ring. “Tim, I really need to know how you came upon this ring. Emily says it has been in your family for a very long time?”

“Yes, Ma’am, it has been passed down to the oldest female in each generation. I know that there is a kind of prophecy about it that I’ve always thought was just a fairy tale, but now I know that magic is real, so perhaps the prophecy is as well.”